Ickler: New hope for the extinct

Sunday

Jul 27, 2014 at 12:45 AM

By†Glenn IcklerLocal columnist

OAK BLUFFS - This headline in last weekís Vineyard Gazette stopped me in mid-perusal of the front page: "Heath Hen Raises Bar On De-Extinction Debate."Since de-extinction is a term with which I am de-familiar, I felt compelled to read this story. I learned that a non-profit operation named Revive & Restore, which is headquartered in California (where else?), believes it can bring back the heath hen, the last individual of which perished here on Marthaís Vineyard in 1932.This brought to mind a column written by my boss at the St. Paul Dispatch and Pioneer Press some 40 years ago. Readerís Digest was running a series of medical articles starting with the term "New Hope." For example: "New Hope for Cancer;" "New Hope for Parkinsonís;" and "New Hope for Diabetes." My boss wrote a parody headlined "New Hope for the Dead."Now, it seems that there really is hope for the long-dead heath hen. The process would entail taking DNA from museum specimens of the heath hen and working with a closely related species, such as the prairie chicken. Using state-of-the-art genomic technology to manipulate primordial germ cells, a prairie chicken could be induced to lay heath hen eggs. Imagine the look on the prairie chickenís face when that occurs.The possibility of bringing the heath hen back to the island hasnít caused much of an uproar in the mainland press but it has stirred up considerable interest here. The Gazetteís main story, two sidebars and seven photos filled 16 column inches on page one and an entire page inside. This is substantial territory because a full page in the weekly Vineyard Gazette, which still uses the old 20th-century size newsprint, is 17.5 inches wide, as opposed to 12.25 inches in your 21st-century standard daily newspaper.The Gazette sought comment from Ronald Sandler, a Northeastern University professor who specializes in technological and environmental ethics. Sandler observed that the de-extinction of the heath hen "would be a kind of very interesting scientific and technological thing to do Öbut it doesnít solve a very large problem. I mean people arenít suffering from a lack of heath hen."Thatís sort of my feeling. I canít remember the last time I felt emptiness in my gut caused by not having heath hens on the Vineyard. Iíd rather the scientific geniuses turned their technology in the opposite direction and extincted (is that the proper opposite of de-extinct?) the rabbits that are eating my garden. The bunnies have become so arrogant that they sit and chew on your balloon flowers until youíre within a step of being close enough to kick them. What we need on this island are coyotes, not heath hens.For those of you not current on your heath hen history, the bird was the same size and shape as a chicken and was abundant along the eastern seaboard until the middle of the 19th century, when the mainland flocks were wiped out by hunters and the only remaining heath hens lived on this island. In 1916, as many as 800 birds were counted on the Vineyard and an estimate of 2,000 was made by the warden in charge.Soon after that the heath hen population plummeted like the stock market during the presidency of George W. Bush. The count was down to 314 in 1920, 75 in 1922 and 17 in 1924, which was the last year any young were hatched. By the autumn of 1927 there were only seven, all of them males.The last of the heath hens, a male nicknamed Booming Ben, gave his farewell acoustical performance in the spring of 1932 in West Tisbury. His body was never found.The proposed de-extinction of the heath hen has raised questions ethically and environmentally. Some of those opposed to the process say mankindís scientific efforts should be concentrated on preventing new extinctions rather than resuscitating an expired species. Others question whether the bird could survive in our present environment.Still, the possibilities of this process are endless. Perhaps Revive & Restore could also bring back the passenger pigeon. Or the dodo bird. Or Ted Williams. In the Splendid Splinterís case, at least theyíd have some cryogenic material to work with.The co-founders of Revive & Restore say they would need the support of Marthaís Vineyard residents to accomplish this de-extinction. To that end, they have scheduled an informational forum titled "The Heath Hen Could Come Back."Will I be there? Wild woolly mammoths couldnít keep me away.Glenn Ickler of Hopedale and Oak Bluffs is a retired newspaper editor.